Stray
by SerenityGrey
Summary: Sam and Dean come across a woman in a bar who may or may not need their help or be a trap. Is meant to take place mid-second season.


"Hey, Sammy, you gotta try these Purple Nurples, dude." Dean grinned at his brother from the stool next to him and offered a mock salute as he tipped another back.

Sam just rolled his eyes and took another sip of his first beer of the night. All week something had been making him restless and he still couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Hello," said a voice at his right elbow. "I'm Paige."

Sam turned towards her and froze, mesmerized. She wasn't beautiful in the supermodel type way, but more in the girl-next-door way. Her short blonde hair was parted to the side in a bob, and her piercing brown eyes seemed to look right through him. She offered her right hand to him to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Paige, I'm Sam." He smiled and reached to take her hand. As soon as his skin touched her's she stiffened as though in pain and her eyes flew shut. Just as suddenly they flew back open luminescent, and focused on him, but instinctively he knew she was watching something besides him.

Moving slowly Paige raised her left hand and rested her fingertips against Sam's cheek. "Oh, Sammy." She whispered, tears filling her eyes, "I'm so sorry." Then the light faded and she appeared to shake herself, blinking rapidly she brought her attention back to the present. Sam's face was clouded with concern and she snatched her hands back to herself embarrassed.

"I-I'm sorry." She quickly stood up from her stool. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. I need to go now." Turning quickly she made her attempt to escape.

"Wait." Sam caught her right wrist as she turned and gently tugged her back to her stool. "Please, wait." He requested more quietly.

Hesitantly she sat back down, but on the edge of the seat, ready to spring back up at another moment's slip. Sam continued to hold onto her wrist just in case she decided to try it. He gazed intently into her face while she tried to avoid eye contact with him. "What did you see?" he whispered.

"See?" she asked, her eyes snapping to his, panic simmering beneath the surface. "I didn't _see_ anything. What are you talking about?" she tugged ineffectually at her trapped wrist.

"Hey, Sam, I-" Dean turned on his stool and stopped as he took in his brother holding the hand of some girl who didn't look particularly thrilled to be thus trapped. "Well, hello." He smiled quite taken with the girl. "I'm Dean. I see you've met my business associate Sam."

"You mean your brother, don't you? And charmed, I'm sure. Really, Sam, I have to go." Reluctantly, Sam released her wrist and she stepped away. She looked at them for a second more, "It was nice to meet you both." She gave them a pained smile then left.

"Weird." Dean commented, signaling the bartender for a couple more shots of Purple Nurple.

"Yeah, weird." Sam whispered, his eyes following Paige as she made her way through the crowded bar to a table where a solitary man sat drinking his weight in rum. She quickly sat down and took the shot the man offered her, shaking her head to whatever question he had asked.

There was something about her that as soon as she had appeared settled that bit of himself that had been so restless the past week. She captivated Sam like no one had before and he didn't feel ready to let go of that quite yet. Not to mention he knew she had seen something when they touched and that could only mean she was some sort of psychic, or, he thought morosely, a demon. With a start he realized that Dean was still talking and had been since Paige had left.

He jerked himself out of his reverie and turned to face his brother. "Sorry. What was that?"

"I was just saying that it was weird. Weird that she would approach you and not me first." He caught Sam staring across the bar at Paige again and rolled his eyes. "Hey. Earth to Sammy. God, man, what'd she do? Put a spell on you, or something like that?"

"Yeah, something like that." Sam jerked to his feet as the man Paige was sitting with suddenly staggered to stand, pushing his chair back so fast it fell over with a crash.

"Tell me the truth, dammit!" he roared at her. She stood quickly and looked around at all the eyes suddenly tuned on her and the man.

"Chad, stop it. You're causing a scene." She told him firmly.

"Oh you want a scene, I can make a scene." He towered over her a good six inches but she stood unflinching.

Sam started towards them but Dean held him back. "This ain't our business, Sammy. Leave it be."

"You're drunk. Let's go back to the room before we both do something we'll regret." To most people she must have sounded soothing, but to Sam she sounded aggravated and annoyed.

"I'm not drunk, bitch," He leered at her. "but I'll certainly go with you someplace more private where you can make the insult up to me." Making a grab for her he almost ended up on the floor when she sidestepped him.

A look of indignation and disgust crossed Paige's face as she watched Chad right himself and go back to looming over her. "You really are becoming your father." She bit out at him.

"Bitch!" he shouted, and in retribution brought his right fist down into solid contact with her left cheek sending her reeling to the ground. Everyone in the bar seemed frozen except Sam, as he rushed across the crowded floor to get to Paige, fury crashing like a wave over him, and Dean, as he trailed uncomfortably after Sam.

Chad stood, straddling her legs, ready to hit her again, when Paige snapped a perfectly aimed and executed kick right to his groin, flooring him. Finally reaching her, Sam helped the unsteady woman to her feet.

"You, okay?" he asked, his brow knit with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied stepping toward the prostrate man moaning on the floor. Silently she rolled him over and fished his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. After rifling through it she shut it with satisfaction and headed for the bar's exit, her gait only slightly unsteady. Nobody tried to stop her. Shrugging off Dean's restraining hand, Sam quickly pursued her.

"Paige, wait." He stopped along side her at the door to one of the motel rooms as she inserted the key and opened the door. "Where are you going?"

He followed her into the room as she started stuffing odds and ends into a back pack. "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm getting my stuff so I get can out to the road and hitchhike away from here in a hurry. Or at least before Bozo gets his legs back underneath him."

Sam stood still considering, as he watched her rush around packing. "My brother and I have a car." He offered tentatively. Paige paused a moment and a wistful look crossed her face.

"Yeah. I know." She whispered, then shook herself. "But Dean wouldn't like it and I don't think it's a good idea either. I'd only get in the way and you guys have a job to do." She went back to packing.

"How do you know what we have to do?" Sam asked hoping she would open up to him.

"It doesn't matter." She snapped brushing him off. "You'd think I was nuts."

"Try me."

Paige sat down on the edge of the bed and looked him in the eye as though daring him to call her crazy, "When I shook your hand, it was like I saw a movie play through my head at super-mega high speed. I saw your past, and Dean's too. All the pain and trials you guys have gone through," her voice softened for a moment. "and what you do to make the world a safer place. I would be a liability and I won't allow that and neither will Dean. So, thanks for the offer, really, but we'll all be better off going our separate ways." She grabbed her bag and stood abruptly, too abruptly. "Ah, crap." She muttered as her vision went black and she passed out.


End file.
